Whereby they live.
(I. i. 135 seq.)
This certainly is liker Livy than Plutarch; and besides the chances of Shakespeare having read Livy in the original, we have to bear in mind that in 1600 Philemon Holland published the Romane Historie written by Titus Livius of Padua. His version, as it is difficult to procure, may be quoted in full:
Whilome (quoth he) when as in mans bodie, all the parts thereof agreed not, as now they do in one, but each member had a several interest and meaning, yea, and a speech by it selfe; so it befel, that all other parts besides the belly, thought much and repined that by their carefulness, labor, and ministerie, all was gotten, and yet all little enough to serve it: and the bellie it selfe lying still in the mids of them, did nothing else but enjoy the delightsome pleasures brought unto her. Wherupon they mutinied and conspired altogether in this wise, That neither the hands should reach and convey food to the mouth, nor the mouth receive it as it came, ne yet the teeth grind and chew the same. In this mood and fit, whiles they were minded to famish the poore bellie, behold the other lims, yea and the whole bodie besides, pined, wasted, and fel into an extreme consumption. Then was it wel seen, that even the very belly also did no smal service, but fed the other parts, as it received food it selfe: seeing that by working and concocting the meat throughlie, it digesteth and distributeth by the veines into all parts, that fresh and perfect blood whereby we live, we like, and have our full strength. Comparing herewith, and making his application, to wit, how like this intestine, and inward sedition of the bodie, was to the full stomacke of the Commons, which they had taken and borne against the Senatours, he turned quite the peoples hearts.
[233] Introduction to the Clarendon Press Edition.
[234] Strictly speaking, from the Tower to Winchester for trial.
[235] Shakespeare, in the Führende Geister Series.
[236] Rather more than the most. It is special pleading to interpret Raleigh’s arguments against the Act for sewing Hemp and the Statute of Tillage in 1601, as directed against cheap corn. His point was rather that coercive legislation in regard to agriculture hindered production and was oppressive to poor men. Nor am I aware that his speeches on these occasions increased his unpopularity,—which, no doubt, was already great.
[237] William Shakespeare, a critical study.
[238] In point of fact “gloom and bitterness” can be less justly attributed to Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus than to any of the later tragedies, and less justly to Coriolanus than to Antony and Cleopatra; but Dr. Brandes treats Troilus and Cressida as coming between them, and if that position could be vindicated for it, the phrase would be defensible.